Developer Frans Pop, author of debtree, posted an article showing the evolution in size of the GNOME desktop environment in recent Debian releases. The picture he paints isn't particularly pretty: the default GNOME install has increased drastically in size over the years.

"I am a professional, and I don't have time to be screwing around with scripts and the command line to get basic functionality."

How do you know what and if it needs to be scripted unles you're doing it? And what kind of profesional wants to wait for his flashy windows to their stuf and then drag them around with a mousey and click on candy-like buttons? Or you are a hard core professional and have it all black?

The idea of a GUI is laughable. It's not a natural way to communicate with the machine but a greased copy of an ancient trick taken out of context. I do not use GUIs or try to avoid them for the reasons you mentioned and others.